Call for Papers - Special Collection

Call for Papers:

Special Collection in Linguistics Vanguard: Sound change in endangered and small speech communities

Managing Editor: Georgia Zellou

Co-Editor: Alan C.L. Yu

Sound change research, as in most work in phonetics and phonology, has focused on languages that have historically been dominant or where speakers are easily accessible. The dynamics of language endangerment and interaction between small groups of speakers may provide unique opportunities for sound change to take place. Small speech communities have different social factors than large communities, leading to the phonetic and cognitive influences on sound change to interact and diffuse in different ways when there are fewer agents. How sound change might originate and diffuse in speech communities of different sizes is poorly understood. Furthermore, endangered and small languages are often heavily influenced by other languages and cultures, making sound change as a result of language contact more likely. In order to make useful models and predictions about when and how sound change will occur, we need to explore these patterns in diverse speech communities. We hope this special collection can address these theoretical issues. Contributions that explicitly highlight the problems, challenges, and progress they have seen in the empirical study of sound change in endangered and small communities will be prioritized. In addition, it can raise awareness of different factors that might be relevant for theoretical and practical issues when examining sound change when more diverse communities are taken into account.

This special collection is inspired by discussions at the 5th Workshop on Sound Change (WSC 5), held in Davis, CA, June 2019. Conference participants, as well as others carrying out research on topics related to sound change in small and/or endangered speech communities whose work was not presented at the conference, are invited to submit a contribution to this Special Collection.

Example of research topics suitable for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Description of sound change innovations in small or endangered speech communities.
• Identification of the sources of sound change, and the mechanism of sound change propagation in small or endangered speech communities.
• Presentation of novel methods or analyses for examining sound change in small or endangered speech communities.
• Core topics in the study of sound change applied to small or endangered speech communities, including works on sound change and language acquisition, computational modeling, phonological theory, coarticulation, and other interdisciplinary topics.

Contributors are asked to submit a one-page abstract (plus one page for figures and references) to the guest editors: (gzellou@ucdavis.edu and aclyu@uchicago.edu). Abstracts will be evaluated for topic relevance for the special issue, and on overall quality. Contributors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper (3,000-4,000 words) that will undergo peer review.

Inclusion of multimodal content designed to integrate interactive content (including, but not limited to audio and video, images, maps, software code, raw data, hyperlinks to external databases, and any other media enhancing the traditional written word) is particularly encouraged. Special collections contributors should follow general submission guidelines for the journal (https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/lingvan#callForPapersHeader).

Timeline:

- abstract due by May 1

- notification to authors by June 1

- full paper due by September 1